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30 October 2018 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Peet van Aardt
iCAN contributes to a decolonised curriculum
Some of the student writers who contributed to the anthology that tells their stories in Sesotho, isiXhosa, isiZulu, English and Afrikaans.

How do you transform the higher education curriculum? You involve the exact people the curriculum is intended for. The book, Initiative for Creative African Narratives (iCAN,) illustrates how decolonisation can be achieved through literature   for students by students.

iCAN is an initiative by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the University of the Free State (UFS) to mentor students in creative and narrative writing. Under the mentorship of Dr Peet van Aardt, project coordinator, and Ace Moloi, author and UFS alumnus, iCAN Volume 1 was recently launched with 47 short stories written by UFS students. 

“The project is a response from the centre for the ever-increasing need for decolonised curricula, steeped in the local cultural perspective of ubuntu,” said Dr Van Aardt.

“This book is an example for how decolonisation can be implemented,” said Prof Francois Stydrom, Senior Director of CTL. The overall aim of the iCAN project is to have the content that materialised from it to be included in the curriculum of first-year students at UFS in the near future.

Book provides multiple voices

Starting in May 2018, CTL presented a series of creative writing workshops on all three of the UFS campuses. “It’s a medium that allows a diverse range of students to express their views and develop their voices as writers,” said Prof Strydom.  

It is a form of empowerment, to pass the baton to students to improve the UFS curriculum by writing and publishing their own stories, thereby contributing to larger bodies of knowledge through their lived experiences.

“I believe we as a university need to enable students so that they move away from just being users to becoming contributors to the curriculum,” Dr van Aardt concluded. 

News Archive

UFS council appoints new representatives
2006-06-14

From the left are Dr Vicky le Roux and Mr Jan Grobler, both are former members of the Executive Committee of the Council, Judge Faan Hancke, chairperson of the Council, and Prof. Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.
Photo: Stephen Collett

UFS council appoints new representatives   

Three new representatives were elected on the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Council during its second seating for 2006.  This includes representatives from the religious community, alumni, donors and the Minister of Education.

Ms Cheryl Gillwald, former Deputy Minister of Correctional Services, has been appointed by the Minister of Education as ministerial representative in the place of Prof Shirley Walters and will serve for the rest of Prof Walters’ term.

Father Patrick Towe, Roman Catholic priest from Bloemfontein, was appointed as representative of the religious community.  Father Towe is member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and chairperson of the UFS Campus Ministries. 

Adv Mauritz Randlehoff, joint deputy chairperson of the national Kovsie-Alumni Association and deputy chairperson of the Kovsie-Alumni Trust, was elected as one of the three representatives out of UFS alumni on the Council.  Judge Faan Hancke was re-elected as representative of the alumni for a second term.

Mr Klippies Steenkamp as representative of the UFS donors has also been re-elected.  He was, among others, chairperson of the Kovsie-Alumni Association and founding member of the Kovsie-Alumni Trust’s council of trustees.

The university also bid farewell to two members of Council, Dr Vicky le Roux and Mr Jan Grobler.  Both were members of the Executive Committee of the Council.  Mr Grobler represented the UFS Council in the Institutional Forum and Dr le Roux was a representative of the Council in the Institutional Forum and the Senate. Together they have serve thirty nine years on the Council.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
13 June 2006


 

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